My stroke is less wobbly now.

Maniac

Maniac

2manyQ's
Silver Member
I've always had a problem with my stroke being wobbly. I've spent hours over the years hitting striped balls to the short rail and back to the tip of my cue, stroking into a plastic soda bottle, etc. Nothing helped. So finally, my hard-headed self decided to delve into the mystery of WHY my stroke is wobbly to begin with. After a while I settled on the opinion that my body is getting in the way. I've heard/read enough about this problem on this forum to know that I need to do some experimenting with my stance to see if I can get some improvement.

Do you know how simple this was? It was as simple as moving my back foot backwards a mere 4". I do not employ a snooker stance, rather one that puts my body at about a 45 degree angle to the shot line. My front foot does not point directly down the shot line (I'm pigeon-toed). I played around a bit with my stance by getting down as usual THEN moving my right foot (I'm right-handed) backwards about 4". No more body getting in the way. Less stroke "wobble".

My stroke is still far from perfect, but I do feel an improvement has been made both in my stroke and my ball pocketing, and that is what we seek, improvement, right?

Maniac
 
My cue stick wobbles slightly when I take my backswings as well. But I can't figure out why. I've messed around with my bridge, my stance, video taped myself and can't find the problem.

I still deliver the cue pretty straight (I believe). I can make 28 out of 30 long straight-ins consistently and I pay close attention to the CB (striped ball) looking for unwanted spin, and I get a little sometimes, but not much.

I can also bring back the CB to my tip in the up and down drill pretty well. I don't know how strict we're supposed to be on that btw... if the side of the CB hits the tip does it still count as a miss?

I also do the drill where I set up an OB in the center of the table and try to make it come back and hit the CB on the way back and I always get a hit on the CB but never perfectly full. Mostly about a half ball hit. Again, don't know how strict I'm supposed to be on that one either. ???

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I am right hand and use the same type of stance as you.

One of the benefits of spending alot of time at the table is you can start to notice things you never did before. I noticed my right hip seemed to be in the way and just like you, I moved my right foot back 4 inches. That caused my right hip to move back more or rather caused me to turn my hips more.

What this did for me was to place my grip hand in front of my right hip and not beside it. My grip hand being in the area in front of my right hip gives me better position to stroke straight.

I have also noticed that how the angle between my left arm and shoulder has a impact on how I feel in a stance.

Sometimes its the little things that matter most.
 
pmata814 said:
My cue stick wobbles slightly when I take my backswings as well. But I can't figure out why. I've messed around with my bridge, my stance, video taped myself and can't find the problem.

I still deliver the cue pretty straight (I believe). I can make 28 out of 30 long straight-ins consistently and I pay close attention to the CB (striped ball) looking for unwanted spin, and I get a little sometimes, but not much.

I can also bring back the CB to my tip in the up and down drill pretty well. I don't know how strict we're supposed to be on that btw... if the side of the CB hits the tip does it still count as a miss?

I also do the drill where I set up an OB in the center of the table and try to make it come back and hit the CB on the way back and I always get a hit on the CB but never perfectly full. Mostly about a half ball hit. Again, don't know how strict I'm supposed to be on that one either. ???

Sent from my BlackBerry 9780 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

This about sums it up for me as well. I don't practice the drill with the CB to OB stop shot ( to rail and back to CB and back to cue tip ) as much but I did do it once perfectly and it felt solid to do so. IO remember Joe Tucker saying that the margin for error is almost non existent. Any inconsistency in my stroke and with these drills I believe is caused with the function of my grip. I also use that laser stroke device ( huge for feedback ) and have improved because of it but I want to be perfect.
 
Maniac said:
I've always had a problem with my stroke being wobbly. I've spent hours over the years hitting striped balls to the short rail and back to the tip of my cue, stroking into a plastic soda bottle, etc. Nothing helped. So finally, my hard-headed self decided to delve into the mystery of WHY my stroke is wobbly to begin with. After a while I settled on the opinion that my body is getting in the way. I've heard/read enough about this problem on this forum to know that I need to do some experimenting with my stance to see if I can get some improvement.

Do you know how simple this was? It was as simple as moving my back foot backwards a mere 4". I do not employ a snooker stance, rather one that puts my body at about a 45 degree angle to the shot line. My front foot does not point directly down the shot line (I'm pigeon-toed). I played around a bit with my stance by getting down as usual THEN moving my right foot (I'm right-handed) backwards about 4". No more body getting in the way. Less stroke "wobble".

My stroke is still far from perfect, but I do feel an improvement has been made both in my stroke and my ball pocketing, and that is what we seek, improvement, right?

Maniac
Click to expand...

You can also try the alignment drill taught by Kinnister (vol 11 DVD), za Germans (Eckertt, Huber, etc.), Rodney Morris (Nate's DVD), etc. It gets the body at the right angle naturally so the stroke arm moves back and forth down the shot line, any inconsistencies from there I believe is due to the grip.
 
You just did what I did early on in my pool "career". By moving your back foot further back, you (& I) rotated y(our) hips which results in more shoulder turn. That shoulder turn is what you were really after (assuming you were "curing" the same stroke issue I did all those years ago). Unfortunately, that isn't the final solution. Your feet are not in a great position.

Try this: move that foot back to the original position (or more square if you are willing to move toward a more "snooker-ish" stance, and simply rotate your shoulders more. Think: put left shoulder along your jaw/chin & put your right shoulder behind your right ear.
Determine: Is your back foot on (or very near) the shot line? If not, experiment with moving it there. See if that helps you align your feet & hands (rear foot, grip hand, & bridge hand should all be on the shot line). Your left foot might feel better further out to the left too.

EDIT: Compare the first video (my old...terribad...stroke) & the second one (my new...getting better...stance):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5lTil-aNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYO2f2RKHfc

By squaring up your hips a bit more counter-clockwise & rotating your shoulders a bit more clockwise, you are putting a slight twist in your back which forces you into a steady/solid position & your back arm to lock in on the shot line. It won't want to go anywhere else. Getting the extra hip & shoulder turn may take some time & experimentation, but you'll know it when you stumble into it. Everything will become rock solid.
 
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mosconiac said:
You just did what I did early on in my pool "career". By moving your back foot further back, you (& I) rotated y(our) hips which results in more shoulder turn. That shoulder turn is what you were really after (assuming you were "curing" the same stroke issue I did all those years ago). Unfortunately, that isn't the final solution. Your feet are not in a great position.

Try this: move that foot back to the original position (or more square if you are willing to move toward a more "snooker-ish" stance, and simply rotate your shoulders more. Think: put left shoulder along your jaw/chin & put your right shoulder behind your right ear.
Determine: Is your back foot on (or very near) the shot line? If not, experiment with moving it there. See if that helps you align your feet & hands (rear foot, grip hand, & bridge hand should all be on the shot line). Your left foot might feel better further out to the left too.

EDIT: Compare the first video (my old...terribad...stroke) & the second one (my new...getting better...stance):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5lTil-aNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYO2f2RKHfc

By squaring up your hips a bit more counter-clockwise & rotating your shoulders a bit more clockwise, you are putting a slight twist in your back which forces you into a steady/solid position & your back arm to lock in on the shot line. It won't want to go anywhere else. Getting the extra hip & shoulder turn may take some time & experimentation, but you'll know it when you stumble into it. Everything will become rock solid.
Click to expand...

I will try this soon, but I think you are asking my 59-year-old body to do things that it isn't going to comfortably do. You should know that I have had right shoulder rotator cuff surgery and have a 15% range-of-motion loss in that shoulder. I have had a left shoulder manipulation procedure that was necessary due to adhesive capsulation (frozen shoulder). I have chronic back spasms and some damaged vertabrae in my neck (did I mention that I'm fat and ugly too :D).

I don't really expect to ever have the perfect stance or stroke. And coupled with the physical problems that I have I feel that this small improvement I made with my stance was somewhat significant to me, therefore why I started this thread.

I am however always open to suggestions, especially those freely given. So I thank you for yours!!!

Maniac
 
Gotcha...what I suggested does require some flexibility which not all of us have. I'm a little stiff for the first 5-10 minutes after an 8-hour session of PC time at work. Whether someone adopts a pool stance or a snooker stance, it should always be comfortable.
 
Mosconiac I think you are using a classic snooker stance with the right foot on the line of the shot.
 
You might consider this.

Tuck a bar towel up under your armpit on your stroke arm. You don't have to hold it tightly, just enough pressure to keep it from falling out. Now start pocketing straight in shots using pocket speed. Work up to shooting racks with it in place.
If it works for you like it did for me you will begin to experience a consistent, solid stroke.
This is a drill I used with golfers to help keep the swing compact.
Try it out. Certainly helped me with exactly what you are talking about.
Tommy
 
I can see the towel trick being effective for golfers as they are best suited by having the elbow tucked into the body. Wouldn't this promote a tucked in elbow (not in line with cue)? I'm not trying to say I'm an expert & it's a bad idea...just that it might work for some people (with more upright stances like Mosconi), but not all. I'd love to keep this discussion going.

Most would agree that Alison has a perfect stance & alignment. If she were to try to lock a towel (or newspaper as I've heard the story), her elbow would tuck in & fall out of alignment with the cue.
100301104533171.jpg
 
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Spent a couple of hours Thursday night working on my stroke as well with my instructor. I have a wide chest and tends to get in my way. We worked on turning my stance a little. Best solution came to bring my feet together in the stance only slightly more than shoulder width apart, along with flexing my left elbow and turning my wrist slightly.

Second and biggest change was in my left arm. I always bridged with my left arm straight. We put about a 10-15 degree flex in the elbow, and the same in the wrist. Seemed to be the biggest improvement and fix for the problem.

Shot last night for about 4 hours and was very pleased with the results.
 
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